All you need to know whether if Keston Hiura will play for the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2023 MLB season which starts next week.
Keston Hiura, an infielder with the Milwaukee Brewers, has been advised that he would not be on the team’s active roster. Within the next several days, Milwaukee will be required to either trade him or put him on waivers because he is no longer eligible for minor league option years.
Arnold also suggested that outfielder Tyler Naquin, who is participating in the camp as part of a minor league contract, won’t be on the squad either. Naquin is already in camp (relayed by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). If Naquin does not want to report to Triple-A Nashville, he will be given the opportunity to use his right to opt out of his contract and test the waters of free agency.
The decision to end their relationship with Hiura was the more difficult one for the Milwaukee front management to make. He was selected ninth overall in the 2017 draught, and he came into the professional baseball league as one of the most promising offensive talents in the game. Hiura breezed through the lower levels of the minor leagues and made it to the main leagues in just two seasons.
At the age of 22, he started his professional baseball career with 84 games and hit 19 home runs while maintaining a batting line of.303/.368/.570. This came with a strikeout percentage that was somewhat worrying at 30.7%, but it appeared reasonable to anticipate Hiura making progress from the contact aspect as he gained more experience against major league guns as he advanced in his career.
Keston Hiura could become a valauble addition for any other team
It did not turn out to be how things worked out, which is unfortunate for both the player and the team. In spite of the fact that he blasted 13 more home runs over the course of 59 games during the abbreviated season, his strikeout percentage rose to 34.6%. This resulted in an unimpressive.212/.297/.410 slash line. Concerns regarding his swing and miss tendencies continued to grow the next year, as evidenced by the fact that in 61 big league games, he struck out slightly under forty percent of the time. Because of this, Milwaukee was forced to yo-yo between him playing in the majors and in Nashville, where Hiura hit for a tonne of power, drew plenty of walks, but maintained striking out at an alarmingly high rate.
The events of 2022 followed a very similar pattern. The graduate of UC Irvine hit 14 home runs while participating in 80 Major League Baseball games. According to the wRC+ metric, his batting line of.226/.316/.449 was 15 percentage points better than the league average offence from the previous season.
This year, the Brew Crew did not have the luxury of dispatching Hiura to Nashville to try to find out what was going on, as they had in previous years. Because they had exhausted all of their choices, they were forced to consider whether or not it was worthwhile to keep him on the bench.
The availability of another right-handed first baseman, Luke Voit, who is in camp on a minor league deal complicated the choice. In light of Milwaukee’s decision to release Hiura, it would appear that Voit’s prospects of making the squad have improved, despite the fact that the club has not yet confirmed whether or not he will be included on the roster.
The Brewers will spend the next few days considering their choices on Hiura and their implications. It is possible that another team will express interest in acquiring a change of scenery trade candidate. He is not subject to arbitration until the 2025 season and is currently playing on a contract that is not too expensive ($2.2 million). A club that is focused on winning right now, like Milwaukee, might not have room on its roster for a new player, but a club that is less focused on winning right now, like the Nationals or Rockies, might be interested.
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